This is one of the first posts on renewable energy production, where we will be looking at any new or old technology that could be used to produce energy with zero or low carbon footprint.

The Off Gridder is a personal power station that turns wood chunks, wood chips, pellets, and certain types of agricultural waste into a usable fuel gas, much like natural gas. This fuel gas is called woodgas and you can use it to power engines and electric generators. It is by no means an answer to everyone but provides a great solution for those wood resource rich (or indeed agricultural waste rich).

An off-grid gasification unit could potentially feed a co-operatively funded community Combined Heat and Power system. (Thanks to Philip for the Victory Gas Works link – http://victorygasworks.ning.com/).

So how does it work?

Trees and other plants act as giant solar batteries. When they are thermally decomposed (high heat, no oxygen) they break down into their most basic elements. In this case it’s hydrogen and burnable carbon gases as well as inert nitrogen. This process is called gasification. The Off Gridder is a gasifier. This mix of wood gases are also called producer gas, town gas & syngas. Wood gas can be used to power engines and generators directly. This technology has been in use for over 150 years now.

Please note that this is just one of the examples of wood gasification to produce energy.